Press release of 23/02/2018

SURVEY ON TOURIST ESTABLISHMENTS. APARTMENTS. JANUARY 2018

Overnight stays in tourist apartments in the Basque Country increased by 15.5% in January 2018

In hotels, rural accommodation and tourist apartments as a whole, there was a 2.2% increase in overnight stays in January

Overnight stays registered in tourist apartment in the Basque Country in January 2018 reached 13,614, which was an increase of 15.5% on those registered in January of the previous year, according to Eustat data in relation to tourist apartments. This is the first time Eustat has produced this data, and it is a further step towards our objective of completing the framework of the tourist establishments survey for all types of establishments.

There was a year-on-year upward trend in overnight stays in Álava and Bizkaia, where they rose by 84.1% and 11.4%, respectively, but in Gipuzkoa they were down 27.0%.

On the other hand, there were 2,788 visitors registered in tourist apartments in the Basque Country in January 2018, which is a fall of 8.3%.

The number of visitors was up 37.6% in Álava, but was down by 4.2 % in Gipuzkoa and 21.3% in Bizkaia, which in January 2017 had seen significant increases.

This January the average length of stay was 4.88 days, above the average length of stay of 3.88 days registered in January 2017. In Álava there was an increase from 8.92 days last year to 11.93 days in January of this year; in Gipuzkoa there was a rise from 2.46 days to 2.86 days; and finally in Bizkaia, the average length of stay fell from 3.35 days in January 2017 to 3.11 days in January 2018.

Balance for January 2018

In hotels, rural accommodation and apartments as a whole, there were 164,778 visitors in January 2018, which was a 0.2% increase compared to the previous year. 47.7% of the total number of visitors to the Basque Country was concentrated in Bizkaia, although total visitor numbers fell by 6.9%. In Gipuzkoa, which accumulated 37.9% of visitors to the Basque Country, there was an increase of 7.8% and in Álava, with 14.4% of visitors, there was a rise of 7.7%.

Overnight stays in the total number of tourist establishments were up by 2.2%, with increase in Álava and Gipuzkoa of 21.3% and 10.5% respectively, whereas in Bizkaia there was a drop of 7.8%.

Methodological note: Those establishments consisting of accommodation units that are offered as self-contained accommodation, and managed under the business operating unit principle, which are professionally and habitually used for providing temporary accommodation without constituting a change of residence for the person staying there.

Tourist apartments can be operated under the block mode (an entire building or complex consisting of flats, apartments, villas, chalets or similar, with communal installations and services, which a single business operating unit assigns to tourist traffic) or the combined mode (aggregate of two or more tourist accommodation units, located in the same or adjacent buildings and without constituting a block, which a single business operating unit assigns to tourist traffic). The accommodation unit is considered to be the part of a tourist apartment establishment that is self-contained and for the exclusive and private use of the person staying there.

For further information:

Eustat - Euskal Estatistika Erakundea / Instituto Vasco de Estadística C/ Donostia-San Sebastián, 1 01010 Vitoria-Gasteiz Press Service: servicioprensa@eustat.eus Tlf: 945 01 75 62